Brother & Brother Builders

We bought our house in 1986. It was built in 1942 and the kitchen appeared to have been updated in the 70’s, as it contained a bright orange counter, brown appliances and dark brown cabinets, an avocado sink, autumn harvest wallpaper and oxblood red linoleum which partially extended into the living room to the front door. My daughter referred to it as “the kichen that time forgot”. We replaced appliances as they broke down and kept things clean, but the linoleum began to peel in high stress areas.
With the kids out of the house going on several years, I finally decided it was time. I made a list and began searching for contractors. My 4th interview was with Dor Ashkar of Brother and Brother Builders. He was friendly, organized and he followed through after our meeting by promptly sending me a written estimate. The estimate and timeline became the contract and the amount never changed. Dor did caution me that the city might require an electrical upgrade, as my panel was very out of date and inadequate. I was concerned that Brother and Brother’s main office was in the south bay and we would be geographically challenged, but that was never an issue.
Some of the contractors I interviewed wanted me to knock out the wall between my living room or remove the arched doorways between kitchen and living room, kitchen and dining room. I was reluctant to do so as my house has few architectural details and these gave the house some charm. The other thing I wanted to keep was my peninsula. The peninsula served as a mini dining area, business center, and catch all. As we moved forward, I discovered that we were not going to be able to keep appliances in their same locations. City codes require a certain amount of counter space on both sides of the stovetop and the stovetop cannot be at the window. It didn’t seem possible that we could retain the side window and the peninsula, and I tried to decide which thing I could live without. Dor, the project manager was able to come up with a design that allowed me to keep both! I got a beautiful stainless steel range hood with an outlet to the outside, a spice drawer with 3 shelves, a blind corner cabinet to utilize space next to the oven that would otherwise be inaccessible, and 2 huge double decker lazy susans.
I was worried that I would be begging workers to come to work on my kitchen and to finish what they started, but that was never a problem. The subcontractors that Brother and Brother used were very dependable, trustworthy, and adaptable. Marcello and his team were outstanding. I was completely comfortable with them working in my house when I was not at home. They were tidy, polite, and considerate. I had a lot of confidence in them. Dor and his associate, Jacob touched base on a regular basis by phone and in person. They were both accessible and responsive to my questions and emails. When I told Dor that I dreaded running from store to store to look for flooring, countertops, back splashes, cabinets, and windows, he had Jacob go with me to their recommended cabinet maker; the other providers came to my house. No running around and agonizing over choices! Dor also brought in a highly-skilled person to cut and install the quartz countertop, as this is a very specialized skill…like cutting diamonds!
Dor had warned me that the city inspector might require updates to my electrical panel, and that is in fact what happened. I elected to get a new main panel over a subpanel; it seemed to be a better long-term solution. Dor and Brother and Brother pulled in a highly skilled electrician to come by to give me my options and estimates. The 3 electricians were able to complete and test the work in a single day, and we were able to get approval from the city inspector. I highly recommend Brother and Brother Builders and Dor Askkar.